SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Ovidio Guzmán López, son of Mexico’s infamous “El Chapo” Guzmán, officially accepted a plea deal Friday morning with U.S. Attorney prosecutors, pleading guilty to four criminal counts for his role in operating a faction of his father’s Sinaloa cartel.

Ovidio, known as “The Mouse,” admitted to two counts of drug distribution and two counts of participation in a continuing criminal enterprise. 

He formally entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Sharon Coleman in Chicago and is now facing a possible life sentence.

But it’s widely believed Ovidio will receive a much lower sentence as a result of this arrangement with the federal government.

As part of the deal, 17 members of his family were formally allowed into the United States two months ago and are in the process of receiving asylum under the witness protection program.

Prosecutors maintain that Ovidio Guzmán López and his brothers, known as the “Chapitos,” little Chapos in English, operated an arm of the Sinaloa Cartel following their father’s arrest in 2016, accusing them of making hundreds of millions of dollars by manufacturing and exporting fentanyl into the U.S.

Ovidio was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico in September 2023.

A year ago, his brother, Joaquín Guzmán Lopez was arrested in El Paso along with Sinaloa kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.

The sibling is negotiating his own deal with the U.S. government after being charged with drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty against him.

Joaquin is due in court later this month.

Their father, “El Chapo,” Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado after his 2019 drug trafficking conviction.